For anybody growing up in the early 80’s, there were certain ‘video nasty’s’ that people had claimed to have seen, yet never had, owing to the outright ban by the British Board Of Film Censorship. These included such films as ‘I Spit On Your Grave’, Driller Killer’ and ‘The Texas Chain Saw Massacre’ to name just a few, and while a handful of these have now been re-issued on dvd, there has been one film that has still been elusive, that film is off course Lucio Fulci cult classic, Zombie Flesh Eaters.
‘An abandoned boat in New York Harbour unleashes a deadly flesh crazed Zombie cargo… A Young American woman and a journalist investigate a tropical island where a deadly disease is making the dead walk… Soon, thoughts of getting to the bottom of the murderous curse will be forgotten, as Fulci s walking corpses overwhelm the living and reports come in that the Big Apple is swarming with the living dead…’
This release had been painstakingly re-mastered and includes the extra two minutes that the censors had the film originally banned for.
What is great about this film is the sheer clarity in which the film has been re-mastered in, this is nothing like a grainy video from the 80’s that I was expecting.
The film to be fair, still holds up well today, there are plenty of shocks, to keep you on the edge of your seat, however it is the sheer gore fest that takes your breath away, the eye gouging scene certainly had me looking away.
It is incredible what the director accomplished on such a limited budget with no CGI special effects, just make up, camera angels and a haunting atmospheric musical score to draw the viewer in, and then to give them the shock of their lives.
I was not expecting this film to be as good as it is, having now seen most re-issued Zombie movies from that era, most are just plain rubbish, with every zombie cliché going done bad. There are no such problems here, this film looks you straight in the eye before ripping your arm off.
Ultimately this is the zombie film that all others must be judged by, and nothing comes close, this is by far the best zombie movie ever made, the original, and still the best, has just got a whole lot better.
Immense, 10/10 for the re-mastering and extras on the dvd, and 10/10 for the movie. A stunning piece of cinema history that is now well over 30 years old.
A word of warning though, it is not for the squeamish.